The field of the disclosure relates generally to incremental sheet forming, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for incremental sheet forming of tailored blanks.
Many structures, such as but not limited to aircraft, include components formed from sheet metal. At least some such components can be at least partially formed by a process of incremental sheet forming, in which a flat, unitary blank of sheet metal is held in a fixture while at least one stylus is used to deform the blank into a desired three-dimensional shape of the sheet metal component. For example, a single stylus may be used, optionally in cooperation with a forming die, or dual styluses may be used on opposing sides of the blank. The geometric changes desired from such incremental sheet forming processes typically have specific requirements in regard to extent and variation of localized thinning, but the actual deformation process may tend to cause localized, uneven thinning of certain portions of the sheet metal which can be difficult to manage. In at least some cases, incremental sheet forming results in the finished component exhibiting one or more of an undesirable stiffness characteristic, residual stresses that cause a “springback” tendency, and other undesirable effects. In addition, an economic viability of components formed by incremental sheet forming depends in part upon the speed with which the forming process can be completed, but increasing the speed of the process in some cases tends to cause unplanned stress distribution and microstructure changes during the forming process.